CR Athletics – Rust-Kelley

The College of the Redwoods volleyball team suffered a “heartbreaker” of a loss to Lassen on Wednesday night, but pushed the visitors all the way in all three sets.

Lassen won 25-23, 25-20, 26-24.

CR head coach Macy Thomas has just seven players available for games right now and Redwoods was going up against a Lassen team with 13 players and a program that is in contention with Feather River for this year’s Golden Valley Conference championship.

But despite the adversity, the CR women continue to battle the odds and they gave the Cougars all they could handle in each set, losing two of them by the minimum.

“We played a heartbreaker of a match tonight,” Thomas said. “We played so hard until the end of each set.”

Former Arcata Tiger Lily Rust-Kelley led the way for the home team with an inspiring effort on the court.

“She had an incredible night in all aspects of the game,” Thomas said of the sophomore outside hitter. “Consistency is her strong suit, but she cranked it up a notch tonight and was just on fire.”

With the win, Lassen improved to 5-1 in conference play and 15-12 overall, while Redwoods dropped to 0-5 and 3-14.

But the shorthanded CR roster continues to impress the coach with the way the players approach each game.

“Overall, I am still so pleased with the team and the growth they are showing every day,” she said. “Putting pressure on these programs is a small win in itself. We are going to continue to figure out what works for us so we can take sets off these teams.”

The CR women will try for their first conference win when they travel to play Shasta on Wednesday.